Recovering a Berkshire fumble on the 22-yard line with 7:49 to play and trailing by eight, the Brunswick football team had a chance to turn the game -- and its season -- around with a touchdown.

However, the drive fizzled and Berkshire took over on downs, driving down the field in seven plays, icing the game with a 34-yard touchdown pass on third-and-15 that gave the Bears a 23-8 win over the Bruins.

Searching for their first win of the season in front of a large Homecoming crowd, it was crushing loss to say the least for the Bruins.

"This is an awful loss," Brunswick captain Addison Pierce said as he fought back tears. "Coming in 0-3 we had our hopes up but we couldn't finish, we couldn't execute on offense. We played hard, we played really hard, but we didn't execute and it didn't happen."

Brunswick came out fired up and on Berkshire's first possession, sacked quarterback Christian McCormick twice, the second time in the end zone for a safety and a 2-0 Bruins lead.

Looking to run, the Bruins used the tandem of Kevin Nathanson and Joe Beninati successfully, but had several drives stall in Berkshire territory or end in turnovers. Brunswick also tried to incorporate WR Dontqutae Robinson as a running back in an attempt to get its most talented skill player involved.

Unfortunately for the Bruins they turned the ball over four times -- two fumbles and two interceptions.

The second interception came in the second quarter when Bruins quarterback Jimmy Knight under threw a wide open Robinson and the pass was picked off with a nifty one-handed grab by Ahmad Reid.

On the first play following the interception, McCormick hit Reid on a slant that went for a 38-yard touchdown, putting Berkshire up 8-2 after a successful 2-point conversion.

"They fought hard today," Berkshire coach Brian Sullivan said. "We have been working hard in practice and we knew we needed this to turn our season around. We went into the locker room thinking we gave up some chances to score in the first half and the kids responded."

Brunswick punted on its first possession of the second half, pinning the Bears inside the 10-yard line.

However, Berkshire's Brandon Richard broke a tackle at the line before streaking down the sideline for an 84-yard run, putting the ball inside the Bruins' 10.

Richard found his way into the end zone three plays later, putting the Bears up 16-2.

On a fourth-and-11 with just under nine minutes to play, Knight scrambled out of trouble and hit Robinson for a 19-yard gain, and two plays later Nathanson plowed into the end zone for Brunswick. The Bruins missed the kick, leaving them behind 16-8.

After Brunswick's next drive ended the Bears moved the ball down to the 34-yard line on six straight running plays, setting up the critical third-and-15.

The Bruins desperately, needed a stop, but with linebackers crashing the line in anticipation of another run, McCormick ran a play action fake and found tight end Connor Pelkey wide open behind the defense for the final touchdown, making it 23-8.

The loss left Brunswick searching for answers to a season quickly spinning out of control.

"Another tough loss," Brunswick coach Jarrett Shine said. "We had a couple mistakes when we shouldn't have made them but that is the way football works. We will just have to come back next week and try to get a win. It is tough for everybody, we all expected a much better season than what we are seeing right now. Something is not working but we will have to go back to the drawing board and see how to fix it."